Daily Archives: May 16, 2019

Bedbugs have pestered us for centuries. These bedbug fossils were recently recovered from Paisley Caves, Oregon, the site of the oldest dated archaeological human remains in North America, and are approximately 9,400 years old.

Bedbugs nearly vanished in the United States during the 1940s and ’50s due to improved hygiene … but are on the rise again due to global travel and a increasing resistance to common pesticides.

A new study finds that bedbugs — just like flies and other insects — have favorite colors. They really like dark red and black, and they shun dazzling white and bright yellow. These apple seed-sized insects probably instinctively prefer black and red shelters over white and yellow ones because they offer better protection from predators such as ants and spiders, Pereira said.

Scientists previously assumed bloodsuckers’ first hosts were bats. But a new genetic analysis of 34 bedbug species reveals that bedbugs appeared 30 million to 50 million years before the nocturnal mammals, says Michael Siva-Jothy, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sheffield in England, and his colleagues.

The analysis, published online May 16 in Current Biology, pegs the emergence of ancient bedbugs at more than 100 million years ago. It also fleshes out more of the pests’ history. For instance, two bedbug species that humans are most familiar with didn’t evolve just to plague us. The common bedbug (Cimex lectularius) and the tropical bedbug (C. hemipterus) emerged around 47 million years ago, long before early human ancestors meandered into bedbug-infested caves, the team found (SN Online: 4/10/17).

The new study “puts the Cimicidae family on the map in terms of understanding its diversity, understanding its evolutionary history in a way that no other previous studies had,” says Zach Adelman, a molecular geneticist at Texas A&M University in College Station, who was not involved in the study.

To build a collection of bedbug specimens, a global network of scientists plucked insects from damp caves and dusty museum exhibits over 15 years. For each species, researchers looked at four genes known to mutate at a constant rate, like an evolutionary timekeeper. The team then calibrated that data with the known fossil records from two insects — an ancient species of bedbug and a closely related insect species — to create its timeline.

The genetic analysis can’t say what Cretaceous critters ancient bedbugs snacked on. But a computer simulation and modern-day behavior — bedbugs prefer hosts that sleep for long periods in one place — suggest that the insects probably fed on small mammals and birds.

Using the feeding habits of modern bedbugs, the team also mapped the likeliest hosts their ancestors would have preyed on. It found that bedbugs were initially picky eaters that preyed on only one type of mammal or bird. Some bedbug lineages continue to dine on a single host. But over time, some swapped furry for feathered prey, and a few even broadened their palate to include a variety of hosts, including humans.

El Pais reported on it on May 13, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived uninvited at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels to demand EU support for US war moves against Iran.

“The United States is deeply concerned by the approval of rules for the European Defense Fund and the general conditions of PESCO,” the letter states, referring to the EU army’s technical name, the Permanent Structured Cooperation. The EU army, the letter added, is leading to “a dramatic step back in three decades of growing integration of the trans-Atlantic defense industry.” It warned of the danger of “unnecessary competition between NATO and the EU”.

The Pentagon letter objects to provisions in the European Defense Fund mandating that European firms control the technology employed in European weapons systems, and threatens to take similar measures to exclude European firms from Pentagon weapons contracts. It states, “It is clear that similar reciprocally imposed US restrictions would not be welcomed by our European partners and allies, and we would not relish having to consider them in the future.”

Referring to the conflicts that erupted when European powers led by Berlin and Paris opposed the illegal 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the letter states that the current EU plans “could not only hurt the constructive relationship between NATO and the EU, but could also potentially revive the tense discussions that dominated our contacts 15 years ago on European defense initiatives.”

The seriousness with which threats of a breakdown of the US-European alliance are taken in ruling circles in Europe was reflected in the publication this week of a study by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank in London. The report, titled “Defending Europe: scenario-based capability requirements for NATO’s European members,” estimated the costs to Europe to rebuild NATO’s military capacity if the United States abandoned the alliance. The document called for a massive $110 billion naval build-up and $357 billion to prepare for war with Russia.

The publication of these documents point to the advanced state of collapse of alliances and arrangements that have governed the international relations of world capitalism for decades. It puts paid to the European imperialist powers’ attempts to present their plans for a major escalation of their military spending and operations as a supplement intended to aid NATO. The Pentagon views these plans as a threat to develop the EU as a rival to the US-led NATO alliance, founded in 1949 after two world wars between the United States and Germany.

The strategic aims underlying the deployment of US warships and troops for war with Iran, which Washington is justifying with unsubstantiated and non-credible allegations of an Iranian military threat to the United States, go well beyond that oil-rich region. Washington in engaged in a ferocious military campaign not only to defend its fading military hegemony in the Middle East and Eurasia. One of its main aims is to stamp out the danger of a potential challenge from its great power rivals, including its nominal European allies.

The massive military build-up underway in Europe, as the EU powers pour billions of euros into their militaries and wage bloody wars of plunder such as the Franco-German occupation of Mali, underscore the class nature of these conflicts. They are bitter struggles between rival imperialist powers over the spoils to be obtained from the world economy, amid growing working class opposition to war and the austerity measures used to finance the military build-ups.

Washington viewed the temporary alliance between Berlin, Paris and Moscow at the UN in opposition to the illegal 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, justified by lies about non-existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a serious threat. Now that Brexit has deprived London of its ability to veto plans for an EU army on Washington’s behalf, these conflicts have vastly escalated. Under cover of an agreement of all the NATO powers to boost military spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product, strategic and commercial rivalries continue to rise between Washington and the EU powers.

On May 13, US Senators Ted Cruz and Jeanne Shaheen introduced bipartisan legislation to sanction European and Russian firms working on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany. Using against Europe methods Washington previously used to target Iran and Russia, the bill would ban travel and financial transactions involving employees and physical assets of firms building the pipeline, which Trump denounced last year. Firms targeted could include Germany’s BASF, British-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, and France’s ENGIE.

Tensions are growing as well over EU relations with China, after Italy formally signed in March a memorandum of understanding endorsing Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a vast Eurasian infrastructure plan, over US objections. Since then, Washington has threatened Germany and Britain with a suspension of intelligence cooperation for allowing the Chinese firm Huawei to participate in building their telecommunications network.

Last week, after visiting Britain to demand London’s support for Washington against Iran, Pompeo abruptly cancelled a visit to Berlin, citing “pressing issues,” and flying to Baghdad instead. There, he promoted US oil deals and demanded that the Iraqi puppet state set up after the 2003 war protect US interests from alleged Iranian threats. Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote on Pompeo’s snub to Berlin that “much of that which for a long time was lauded as the German-American friendship now lies in pieces.”

Similarly, French President Emmanuel Macron complained of the US torpedoing of the Iranian nuclear deal. At an EU summit last week in Romania, Macron said, “Firstly, Iran did not withdraw from this deal. Secondly, if Iran withdraws from this deal, it will be the responsibility of the United States.”

And yesterday, Spain withdrew its frigate Méndez Núñez from the US-led naval battle group anchored by the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, which is sailing to the Persian Gulf to threaten Iran. Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles blandly stated: “If the North American government intends for the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to go to a certain zone for a certain mission that it never agreed with Spain, we are provisionally leaving the battle group.”

Despite taking a move indicating real fears that the naval battle group will launch military action against Iran, Madrid sought to downplay the decision and mask its significance to the public. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said there had been “no formal complaint” from Madrid to Washington over this event, adding, “It is not something to get too worked up about.”

As US warships steam towards Iran and the Pentagon considers plans to deploy 120,000 troops to the region, bitter conflicts are erupting between Washington and the European Union: here.

Following the announcement last week by the US Defense Department of its biggest ever arms deal involving the purchase of nearly 500 F-35 fighters, Europe replied in kind on Monday. At the world’s largest air show in Le Bourget near Paris, the German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, together with her colleagues from France, Florence Parly, and Spain, Margarita Robles, signed major agreements to develop a joint European air combat system (Future Combat Air System—FCAS): here.

National Geographic | THE NEANDERTHALS | FIRST PEOPLES OF EUROPE | HD Full Documentary

Neanderthals or Neandertals were a species or subspecies of archaic human, in the genus Homo, which became extinct around 40,000 years ago. They were closely related to modern humans, sharing 99.7% of DNA.

That conclusion, published online May 15 in Science Advances, stems from an analysis of early fossilized Neandertal teeth found at a Spanish site called Sima de los Huesos. During hominid evolution, tooth crowns changed in size and shape at a steady rate, says Aida Gómez-Robles, a paleoanthropologist at University College London. The Neandertal teeth, which date to around 430,000 years ago, could have evolved their distinctive shapes at a pace typical of other hominids only if Neandertals originated between 800,000 and 1.2 million years ago, she finds.

Gómez-Robles’ study indicates that, if a common ancestor of present-day humans and Neandertals existed after around 1 million years ago, “there wasn’t enough time for Neandertal teeth to change at the rate [teeth] do in other parts of the human family tree” in order to end up looking like the Spanish finds, says palaeoanthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Many researchers have presumed that a species dubbed Homo heidelbergensis, thought to have inhabited Africa and Europe, originated around 700,000 years ago and gave rise to an ancestor of both Neandertals and Homo sapiens by roughly 400,000 years ago. Genetic evidence that Sima de los Huesos fossils came from Neandertals raised suspicions that a common ancestor with H. sapiens existed well before that (SN Online: 3/14/16). Recent Neandertal DNA studies place that common ancestor at between 550,000 and 765,000 years old. But those results rest on contested estimates of how fast and how consistently genetic changes accumulated over time.

With that molecular debate in mind, Gómez-Robles calculated the rate at which eight ancient hominid species evolved changes in tooth shape. That enabled her to gauge how long it must have taken for Sima de los Huesos teeth to evolve after Neandertals diverged from a common ancestor with H. sapiens.

Moving back the date of an evolutionary split between Neandertals and H. sapiens appears reasonable based on the new data, says paleoanthropologist Aurélien Mounier of Musée de l’Homme in Paris. The timing of that split could still change, though, if further research modifies the Spanish fossils’ age, he says.

Other Spanish hominid teeth dating to nearly 800,000 years ago display some Neandertal features, supporting the new study’s conclusions, says New York University paleoanthropologist Shara Bailey. But it’s unclear if Gómez-Robles’ contention that hominid teeth evolved at a steady rate will hold true, Bailey says.

“The Pentagon on Tuesday disputed comments made by a British general who said earlier in the day that he had seen “no increased threat” from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria. British Maj. Gen. Chris Ghika, the deputy commenader of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, told Pentagon reporters earlier on Tuesday that in terms of militia groups that receive funding from Iran, the coalition has found “no change in their posture since the recent exchange between the United States and Iran, and we hope and expect that that will continue.”

Sanders, the front runner to win the Democratic Party nomination to stand against Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential elections, was responding to reports in the New York Times that the Trump administration was secretly preparing plans to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East, a plan the paper claims is being spearheaded by Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton.

Sanders said in the video that he was trying to build a coalition in Congress to force Trump to ask Congress for any authorisation to take military action against Iran or ‘anyplace else’ and that Congress ‘must do everything it can to prevent the Trump administration’s attempts to put us on the brink of a catastrophic and unconstitutional war with Iran.’

Sanders attack on Trump and Bolton’s drive to war in Iran and ‘anyplace else’, a reference to the moves to overthrow the legal government of Venezuela, reflects the rapidly developing class struggle of the working class in the US against Trump and the US ruling class and the way it is dumping the economic crisis of US capitalism onto the backs of US workers, and workers throughout the world.

In the past year America has experienced the biggest number of strikes and lock-outs since 1986 with official estimates that 485,000 workers had taken strike action.

The mass movement against Trump’s war on the working class is now being reflected in the growing opposition to the US war against Iran and Venezuela, a war intended to secure and dominate the vast oil reserves of these nations making them into the private property of American imperialism.

Despite having all amenities cut off and the embassy surrounded by police, the occupiers remain defiant in opposing the illegal coup attempt masterminded by the US, and they have massive public support.

The mass movement of workers and youth in the US has created fear in the ruling class, a fear expressed openly by Trump when he declared a ‘war against socialism’ singling out Sanders as the enemy who will ‘destroy’ American capitalism.

Sanders, who is an out and out reformist, is not the real threat. The real threat are the millions of US workers and youth who are propelling him forward as they become revolutionised by the world capitalist crisis and who will not support wars abroad by the same ruling class that is waging war against them and their families.

The US workers have a decisive role to play in putting an end to imperialist wars. They are becoming more and more aware that the enemy of the people of Iran and Venezuela is their enemy as well and that the only solution to US imperialist class wars at home and abroad is to put an end to the bankrupt capitalist system through a socialist revolution and a regime and systemic change at home!

Washington has ratcheted up war tensions in the Persian Gulf with an order to evacuate all non-essential US personnel from its embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in Erbil, the de facto capital of the Iraqi Kurdish region: here.

TRUMP THREATENS ‘OFFICIAL END OF IRAN’ As tensions escalate between the U.S. and Iran, Trump warned the Islamic republic that a fight would result in its demise. “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran,” he wrote in an afternoon tweet. “Never threaten the United States again!” [HuffPost]